It's the most wonderful time of the year!

I love leeks, thanks for sharing your recipe.

I usually just saute chopped leeks in butter and then pour in some cream and let it reduce until it is a nice thick consistency. 

Oh YUMMMM!!!

I am doing dinner this year.

Turkey - of course and the skin is MINE! (brined in apple juice)
onion and sage stuffing
giblet gravy
mashed potatoes with a ton of butter and cream
Baked sweet potatoes (I bake them sliced open with butter, bacon and brown sugar)
Cranberry relish
Yeast rolls
Broccoli w/ cheese sauce
Pumpkin pie and pecan pie

Stuffed mushrooms, deviled eggs, and stuffed poblano peppers for appetizers.

I had about 1/2 apound of bacon and 2 eggs for breakfast and now I am hungry again!

I just sat down to eat my breakfast (eggs scrambled in butter, crumbled hot breakfast sausage and 2 large slices of sharp cheddar cheese melted on top with a few pickled jalapeno slices thrown in for good measure) and I saw this thread. I now have a text document started with a growing list of additional things I will be making for Thanksgiving and the days following.

My mother usually makes most of the T-day feast and a couple of days later I make another turkey since usually there is not much turkey leftover. This year I am going to smother my turkey in a herb infused mayonnaise and then roast it. I did this with a whole chicken two days ago and holy crap was that chicken good. For those of you that are not fans of mayo you can't taste the mayo after the bird has been roasted. The mayo keeps the bird nice and tender while the herbs season the meat and the skin. Oh yeah, the recipe insists you throw a stick of butter in the cavity for good measure.

As a reminder to those who are not familiar with the DS:  DSers malabsorb about 80% of the fat we eat.  That means it never gets into our bloodstream AT ALL - it goes in one end (whereby we get to taste and enjoy it, and feel the sense of satiety that fat in our NORMALLY functioning stomachs gives us) and comes out the other end, without metabolic impact.  Almost all of us end up with cholesterol and triglyceride and CRP levels that are the envy of our doctors - far into the low normal ranges - despite enjoying multiples more fat than we ever allowed ourselves to eat before surgery, when our metabolic profiles were indicating that we were walking heart attacks waiting to happen, despite statins, BP meds, miserable low-fat diets, etc.

A year after my DS, my cardiologist fired me - there was no reason for me to see him any more.

My favorite aphorisms for post-op DSers from one of the pioneers of this surgery, Dr. Douglas Hess:  "FAT IS YOUR FRIEND!"

Edited to add some lab numbers

Thank you for pointing this out, Diana.

For anyone who might be skeptical of the 80% fat absorption I would be more than happy to share my lipid panel results from before surgery and the results I just received from my 6th month labs.  I eat much more fat now then I did prior to surgery. 

Total cholesterol: 12/18/10: 225H; 4/6/11: 232H; 7/27/11: 106; 7/27/11: 107

Triglycerides: 212/18/10: 208H; 4/6/11: 238H; 7/27/11: 83; 7/27/11: 55

White blood cells: 4/6/11: 7.6; 7/27/11: 4.1; 7/27/11: 3.1

A few cardio-related numbers from pre-op(mine kind of varied, so I included a few of the worst ones) and now:

Total cholesterol: 1999: 211H; 2000: 215H; 2002: 194; 2011: 163

Triglycerides: 2000: 133; 2002: 158H; 2011: 112 (up from well below 100 for the last several years - I might not have fasted long enough before the blood draw)

White blood cells: 1999: 12.3H;  2000: 12.3H; 2002: 14.4H; early 2003 11.6H; 2011: 8.0 (I was tested for leukemia because of my high WBC counts; they likely reflected cardiovascular inflammation secondary to morbid obesity)

C-reactive protein: 2002: 2.27H; early 2003: 2.98H; 2010: 0.8 (they forgot to do the CRP test with my yearly labs in July - I have to go back and get another draw the next time I'm up there) (note that the earlier tests were different from the more sensitive later ones, so on the earlier tests, the cutoff for normal was 0.8; for the later tests, the cutoff is 9.0; therefore, my CRP went from nearly 4 times too high (and in an earlier test, was over 10 times too high) to being less than 10% of the cutoff)

Holy cow my list of new things to make just keeps growing! The mayo is a great idea. I have always smeared herb infused olive oi inside and outside the bird, but was trying to figure out how to make my oil mixture more of a paste. The mayo, because it has "body" will hold the oils on it for longer, which is what I want. I already use the butter, but slide chunks of it under the skin.

I think you just gave me my next Thanksgiving addition (adding to the tiramisu, leek soup and lemon pie).

Here is the link to the recipe:

shewearsmanyhats.com/2011/11/mayonnaise-roasted-turkey/

The skin gets crispy and tastes so good but it may be a little salty for some.  If you are a person where a little salt goes a long way then I would omit salting the outside of the bird where you plan on mayoing it.

I have always smeard butter between the skin and meat before cooking so I wonder how much better this would be if it had mayo on the outside and butter on the inside.

I might try this also.

My dad bones out the entire turkey then stuffs it and sews it up. It always comes out delish.
It also looks beautiful and you can't tell it is de-boned until you slice it.